


Dancing The Night Away With You

by Josie_P



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Crushes, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25203379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josie_P/pseuds/Josie_P
Summary: Han Jisung loves Lee Minho. Loved every bit of him, to his dark raven black hair, to the elegant slope of his nose, to his delicate dancer feet.However, he knew that Minho didn't feel the same way. Sure, they had a couple of moments in front of the camera for fans, but beyond that, Jisung knew that Minho would never, ever, love him that way.But could Jisung be wrong...?
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 17
Kudos: 46





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Hi ya'll! This is my first fic posted on ao3, and honestly, I've been having so much trouble posting this first chapter LOL, I prewrote everything on a Google Doc, and tried to copy and paste it down, but it wouldn't load, so then I had to write every word over again.   
> I actually drafted this fic a pretty long time ago, when Woojin was still part of Stray Kids, which is why he's mentioned in the first chapter, but he won't be in the other chapters.
> 
> Please enjoy the fic :)

Han looked across the room to see Minho combing his hair. He felt himself blush. “Heyy Minho-hyung wassup?” He asked, and then cringed at himself.

Han had had a crush on Minho for a while, but he was having some trouble admitting it to himself, let alone anyone else. Minho looked at his dongsaeng in amusement. “Just combing my hair. Ooh, here sit down.” Minho cast Han a smile that had him weak in the knees. He pulled a rolling chair in front of his drawer, and patted it. “I’ll style your hair nicely, hm?”

Han nodded, still blushing slightly. Minho brushed his hands through Han’s golden brown locks, then grabbed his comb. “AHHHHHHHHHHHH MINHOOO!” A loud voice exclaimed. Han turned to see Changbin behind him, with a necklace in hand. It was a black choker band, fairly simple with a black rose in the middle. Changbin walked over to Minho. “I know how much you like them, and when I saw this one at the store I had to get it for you.” He carefully put the choker on Minho’s neck. “Mhm, you look nice!” Changbin declared. Minho fiddled with his silver earring, a habit of his when he was nervous.

“Thanks, Binnie, but now I need to get you something!” Changbin chuckled. “Nah, it’s fine hyung.” Minho’s phone dinged, he picked it up and went to his Messages. “Ah, Channie hyung just texted that we’re going to some Chinese restaurant.”

“Chinese?” Jisung asked. “Why?”

“I dunno.” Minho said, absentmindedly pulling on his choker.

“Wait, a second, Jisung, isn’t Chinese your favorite?” “Yeah, why?” Jisung asked. “Mhm.” Minho hummed absentmindedly. “OH!” He suddenly exclaimed, slapping a hand over his mouth. “OH MY GOSH!” He pulled out his phone and began typing vigorously. After a few seconds of blankly staring at the screen he breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank God, okay, we still have time.”

“Wait, what is it?” Changbin and Han both asked.

Minho shook his head. “Nothing, nothing…I... never mind, come on guys, Woojin-hyung, Channie-hyung, Seungmin, Hyunjin, Felix, and Jeongin are already at the restaurant.” He quickly spritzed some hair-spray on Han’s hair and then pulled him up. “Alright, now, let’s go! Can’t wait to drive there!”

“Ooh, hyung, don’t go past the speed limit this time, that American police officer we bumped into last time was scary.” Changbin laughed.

“Oy, at least we didn’t get a ticket! My English skills are amazing.”

Han and Changbin laughed and rolled their eyes at their dark-haired hyung.

A few minutes later, the three finally reached the restaurant.

Minho hyung smiled widely when he saw BangChan, then went to whisper something in his ear.

Han felt slightly jealous at being left out on the secret.

Minho giggled and Han felt beyond furious. Minho wasn’t a possession, something he could own, but regardless, he still felt upset when the older talked to another member so closely.

When they had all sat down, (Han had made sure he got a seat close to Minho, and Changbin was also close to the third oldest in the band, so poor Minho ended up squished between two clingy dongsaengs, but he didn’t mind) Chan ordered enough food for all nine of them. Not a minute later a huge cake appeared in front of the table, and Minho squealed in delight. “It’s a strawberry short cake for my favorite dongsaeng!” He smiled and grabbed the acorn sitting on top of the cake. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JISUNG!”

The rest of them laughed at Minho’s enthusiasm, and pink dust coated Jisung’s cheeks. “Aww, thanks guys, I thought you forgot--” Minho vigorously shook his head, “We would never. And I would carry you, but we’re in public and you're really heavy.” Han chuckled.

“OKAY NOW!” Woojin interjected. “ITS TIME TO EEAAAAAAAAAT CHICKEEEEEN!”

The rest of them laughed and began eating their food, with the exception of Minho, who was too busy looking on his phone.

“Mhm, hyung!” Han whined through a mouthful of noodles. “Why aren’t you eating?”

Minho shrugged. “I’m not hungry, and I’m on a diet anyway. Oh!” He leaned closer to Han and whispered in his ear. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but, it’s for my solo in the new song.” Han frowned slightly. “You need to diet for your solo?”

Minho smiled mischievously. “You’ll see!”

The Next Day At Dance Practice….

The nine of them were practicing the choreography for their new song, Endless Waves.

Jisung sighed as he realized that once again, he was in the wrong spot.

Minho bit his lip and paused the music. “Okay, guys, um....” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Jisung, you’re in the wrong spot. Changbin, you're a beat too slow. Seungmin, you’re a dancer not a seagull; don’t flap your arms like that. Jeongin, for your singing part, you need to be in front of Woojin, not Hyunjin. Hyunjin you need to extend your right arm on the chorus, not your left. Felix, when you rap you need to be a bit faster with your side-stepping. Woojin, cross your right leg in front of your left, uncross, switch places with Jeongin, then spin.” He took a deep breath.

“But it’s fine, we can do it again.”

Han felt a pang of pity for his third oldest hyung. “We’ll do this step by step, first let’s go to our starting positions.” Minho patiently went around the room fixing everyone’s positions slightly. “Right, now after this bit, there’s a really complicated hook to the dance which I’m going to skip for now, right now let’s go ahead and start the chorus.”

After two hours, the practice finally ended and Han’s shoulder’s sagged with relief. “Finally, it’s over!” Han exclaimed. “That was torturous!”

Minho threw Han a hurt look, though it quickly disappeared. “Uh… you guys go ahead, I need to practice some more.” Minho said, running a hand through his hair.

The other members looked at each other incredulously. Even though he already had the dance down, Minho was still staying behind? That’s why he was one of the main dancers.

Han went over to Minho. “Hey, if you don’t mind, can you show me how to do that double-step part again?”

Minho frowned slightly. “Are you sure? You seem kinda tired…”

Han nodded. “I am, but I did the worse at practice today--”

“Oy, Hannie.” Minho interrupted. “Did you see Seungmin? Like darn, he’s some Justin Seagull--”

“HYUNG!” Han exclaimed, amused and slightly horrified that Minho would say something like that about one of the members.

Minho giggled. “Ah, I’m joking Han-ah. You go home and shower, you need it.” Han chuckled. “Meanwhile, you smell like mint and oreos.”

Minho grinned. “That’s specific.”

“Bye bye!” Han waved and added some aegyo for no reason other than the fact that he loved to tease Minho.

At The Dorms, 8 P.M.

“Everybody!” Chan announced. “Come on! I’m doing a VLIVE!” The members cheered and got onto the same bed so they could all be in the camera shot. Woojin (forever the mother of the group) began to count heads and frowned when he came one short. “Oh, Minho’s missing, Han, can you go get him?” Woojin asked. Han nodded and went over to Minho’s room, they shared by two according to age order, leaving Jeongin a room of his own since he gets claustrophobic easily. Because of this, Changbin and Minho bunked together. Jisung suppressed the jealousy of the thought.

He finally paused in front of the brown wooden door, and was about to knock when he heard a soft voice.

“And at the end of the day, when I see the smile on your face, I know it was worth it--for you I’d face the Endless Waves…”

Han knocked on the door.

“Oh, um, come in!” Minho exclaimed, surprised at being interrupted.

“Wow, hyung!” Han said earnestly. “You sound amazing!”

Minho tugged on his earring. “Ah, not really.”

Jisung shook his head at his hyung’s modesty. “Oh, and Channie hyung’s doing a VLIVE so Woojin asked me to come and get you.”

Minho nodded, then followed Han out.

The two of them saw Chan read some comments.

“Where’s Minho? Can Han and Minho do a dance together?”

Minho giggled at the comments and Chan looked up and saw him. “Ahhh, Minho, come and sit here!” He patted a seat next to him, and Minho sat beside him, putting his head on BangChan’s shoulder. “Ahh, hyung I’m so tired~” BangChan chuckled. “I told you not to stay behind at dance practice, didn’t I?” Woojin scolded. Minho smiled.

Jeongin conspicuously whispered something in Felix’s ear. Felix nodded and then told Seungmin.

“Ooh, what are our maknae’s whispering?” Chan asked, panning the camera toward them.

Felix grinned mischievously. “If Han hyung and Minho hyungie don’t do a dance, and if Woojin hyung and Channie hyung don’t do one either, me Seungmin-ah and Jeongin will.”

BangChan grinned at his Aussie friend’s antics. “Okay, let’s ask Stays what they want.”

He looked in the comments and smiled when the one thing being commented over and over was ‘Han and Minho’ and ‘Minho Han Duo’

“Oooh looks like Minho and Han need to daaaaance.” Woojin remarked, casually munching on some crackers.

Minho grinned and looked at Han, who smiled back at him. “Ready?”

The two of them got up and Han, who had no idea what was going on, waited for Minho to give him some idea what to do. Minho grinned and started playing a song on his phone. He turned to Han, “LET’S DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY!” Han grinned and they both did the moves to the girl group song, Minho executing the moves perfectly and Han fooling around. Jeongin and Felix smiled at them and got up, doing the dance with them. Soon, the rest of the group joined until they were all up and dancing to the song.

When it finished, Chan smiled and waved bye to the camera, then ended the VLIVE.

All the members dispersed back to their separate bedrooms.

In The Middle Of The Night….

Minho woke up in a cold sweat, he rubbed his eyes and immediately grasped at his wrist looking for a certain dark blue bracelet. He panicked when he couldn’t find it.

Minho got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a glass of water when he bumped into Han. “Minho hyung?” Han asked sleepily. “What are you doing here?”

Minho just shook his head. “I need some water, but I’m also looking for my bracelet.”

“Oh.” Han stopped rubbing his eyes and looked at Minho, all traces of tiredness gone from his face. “The one your mom gave to you?”

Minho nodded, frowning. “I don’t know where it is…”

“Mhm, okay hyung, we’ll look for it in the morning, don’t worry.”  
Minho nodded and went back to bed.

The Next Morning; Dance Practice

The nine of them were waiting in the dance room for their choreographer who was supposed to show up 5 minutes ago

“Um, don’t worry guys, I’ll call hyungnim again.” Minho said, nervously dialing the number on his phone, “Hello… oh, that’s okay…. Sure… I’ll see you then, I guess.” He hung up the call. “So turns out hyungnim is going to be a bit late, so I’m going to go ahead and explain the hook of our song. As you all know, we’re making a new album called “The Path” In total, the album will have 9 songs, and the first M\V we’re recording is the song called “Endless Waves” In our nine songs, the nine of us will each have separate solos, enunciating the role we play in the group, which may sound a bit confusing, but hyungnim will explain later.”

Just then the door opened, revealing a very frazzled looking choreographer hyungnim. “Ah, guys, I’m so sorry I’m late.” He put his bag down, then walked over to the group. “I will now take you through the choreography for the hook of the song.” He pulled over a ladder-stool and Minho climbed on it. “Okay, so now just... lift your hands up and put them next to each other to create sort of a stage. He positioned the members hands so 16 hands were angled upward. “Now Minho, you need to get on their hands.”

Minho nodded and stepped on the hands of the members.

“Waah, Minho-hyung, you’re really light.” Jeongin said, surprised at the lack of weight on his hands. “Mhm.” Minho hummed absentmindedly. “S-so for the next part,” He paused and closed his eyes, then breathed in slowly. “Um, Jeongin, really really slowly, just lower your hand, and Seungmin, lower yours a bit faster.” The two of them did so, just as Minho stepped to the side creating a sort of ripple wave effect.

“Oh, waaah~ It looks so cool Lee Know-ah!”

Minho smiled widely as the members took turns to lower and raise their hands.

“Right, now the hook is around a minute long, so I’ll sing my part and you guys can do the ripple effect, then, the hard part comes.”

“Wait, so this wasn’t the hard part?” Felix asked in English, surprised.  
Minho took a moment to understand what was said, then laughed and nodded. “Yeah, the next parts are a bit harder. I’ll need to do a back-flip.”  
A collective gasp arose from the members. “But hyung,” Jeongin interrupted. “Won’t you get hurt?”  
Minho put his head to one side, feigning a puzzled expression. “Ah, Jeonginnie, you know your hyung is too good at this for that to happen.”

Jeongin smiled unsurely, he knew this wasn’t the safest thing, but he trusted his hyung.

“Okay, so this may be a bit hard at first, but I think we can do it.” Minho crouched down on the platform of hands. “When I flip, you need to split apart, Woojin-hyung, Channie hyung, Changbin and Hyunjin go one one side, and Hannie, Felix, Jeongin and Seungmin go on the other. I’ll sing the final line of the pre-chorus, then flip, just as I’m in mid-air you’ll split apart, then I flip from this side,” He gestured to Chan, “to the other side.” He looked at Felix. “Does everybody got it?” He asked in broken English.

Felix and BangChan grinned at the bad grammar.

“Okay, then let’s start!”

The choreographer hit play and the music filled the room, the previously recorded voice of Minho blasting through the speaker. Minho lip-synced to the words, then said out loud. “Okay, I’m flipping in, three, two, one!” The two groups split and Minho successfully landed on the other side.

The music stopped and the choreographer called, “Okay, everyone! Break for 15!”

The group cheered and headed to their bags to grab water-bottles.

“Ohmygosh, Minho hyung.” Jeongin said, making his way over to the other. “I’m so thankful that it went alright, I was so worried you’d be hurt!”

“Ah, maknae-ah!” Minho teased, ruffling Jeongin’s hair. “Don’t worry about this hyungie, hm? He knows how to dance!”

“Oh!” BangChan interrupted. “You mean like that one time you chicken-danced at my birthday!”

Minho grinned widely. “It was awesome, right?”

Chan rolled his eyes jokingly. “More like horrifying! I’m scarred for life now, thanks to you!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Minho mocked, grabbing his water bottle.

“Okay! Breaks over guys! 1 more hour of practice and you’ll be free to go!”

The members sigh, and run through the song again.

After an hour, the members clamber into the van, Jeongin immediately clinging on to Minho, and heading for the back seat.  
Han discreetly eyed the makane and scowled inwardly, making sure to sit next to Minho as well. (So once again, Minho was stuck between two clingy dongsaengs)

“Hyungie.” Jeongin pouted and placed his head on Minho’s shoulder. “I thought you were going to die.”

Minho spit out his water, doubled over into his seat, laughing.

“Hyungie~” Jeongin whined. “It’s not funny!”  
Minho quickly composed himself, though snickers occasionally escaped his lips. “Oh no.” Jisung shook his head when he saw his hyungs wide eyes. “He’s been triggered, guys!” He loudly announced to the front of the van.

“You mean Minho?” BangChan asked from the front seat, concerned. “What did it?”  
“Jeongin thought he was going to die during his solo.”

On hearing that sentence, the van was filled with Minho’s giggles, like a child who was given one too many lollipops.

The first time Minho was triggered, started a few days after their debut. Everyone was happy, but for some reason Minho was just stressed.

During breakfast, Jeongin began talking about his friends back in Busan. “And then, Chin-Hwa snorted strawberry milk out of his nose--” He was interrupted by loud giggles from the end of the table. He looked up and was met with the sight of Minho hiding his mouth behind his hand, snickers escaping his lips. “I’m sorry, it’s just, nothing, continue Jeongin.”

Of course, the members of Stray Kids were a bit surprised at their normally…. Well, normal hyung’s outburst, they didn’t think much of it.

Lunch was kimchi-jjigae, something all the members liked. The table was filled with the usual loud chatter when suddenly Jeongin asked, “Hyung? Why aren’t you eating?”

Minho looked up, surprised, “Oh right.” He grabbed his chopsticks and started poking around his meal, and finally started eating. And that was that. Sure, it was a tiny bit strange that Minho, who adored kimchi-jjigae, waited for some time before he ate it, but it wasn’t that unusual.

All was normal until their late evening VLIVE which was simply put… a nightmare.

It all started when Jeongin told a really, really, bad pun. None of the members laughed (most of them were just shaking their heads and smiling at the youngest) except Minho, who absolutely died of laughter. Until he was actually crying. “Ahem, excuse me.” He nodded and made his way to the bathroom, when the loud sounds of retching could be heard.

BangChan’s eyes widened when he heard the sound and quickly said, “Ah, Stays! We’re all a bit tired, so goodbye!” He quickly waved and ended the VLIVE. Then made his way to the bathroom, and knocked on the door. “Minnie? Can I come in?”

“Mhm.” Minho replied.

Chan opened the door, preparing himself to the worst, and was surprised when he saw Minho on the floor, clutching his stomach. Besides that, the only thing off with him was his skin, which was a lot paler than it usually was.

“Minnie!” Chan exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Minho burst into peals of laughter at the question, as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

“Hahhah! Ch-Channie hyung you're so funny!” He giggled, sounding drunk.

BangChan looked at him, concerned. “Let’s get you to bed, okay?”  
Lee Know snickered and got up, wobbling on his feet and almost falling down, but Chan catched him inside. “You know what? I don’t think you can make it to bed by yourself.” He carried him back to bed bridal style.

When Minho had finally gotten to bed, Chan put a hand on his forehead. “Hm, you don’t have a fever…”

Jeongin got on the bed and gently took Chan’s hand away from Minho’s forehead. “It’s from the stress, hyung.”

“The stress?”

“Yeah, my mum went through something similar after one of her project deadlines finished. He must be carrying a lot right now, and the stress caught up to him, so…”

“What happened to your mom?” BangChan asked, curious.  
“Well she more or less went through the same thing, except instead of laughing, it was crying. Happy tears, angry tears, sad tears. The whole shebang.”

BangChan smiled, “But she’s…. Okay right?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jeongin responded. “It was just her way of dealing with stress. After one of her big projects had finished, and she saw something sad? It was BOOM!” He mimicked an explosion and mimed tears falling down his face.

“So… did your mom ever get back to…. Normal?”  
“Oh yeah, haha, she went through that phase, usually for about 2 weeks? Maybe more, based on how big the project is, but don’t worry.” BangChan nodded.

For the rest of the week, things were a bit strange with many giggly snickers bordering on hysterical laughter, but after that, things were normal.

After that, there were definitely a few other instincts when Minho had been triggered, all pretty minor, and so there wasn’t too much reason to be worried about it.

But now, with a comeback and a heap ton of stress coming along? The other eight of Stray Kids shook their heads. This was gonna be a long 2 weeks.

The Next Day: Dance Practice

“Okay, everyone!” Minho said, clapping loudly. “Let’s get started! We’re going to go over Endless Waves, one more time, and if we nail it, you can go home early!” There was a chorus of cheer. “Tomorrow, we’ll be working on the song containing Han’s solo, “Flash Of Light.”

“Now, get into your starting positions!” They all began in their starting positions, and the song blasted through the speakers.

Jisung was surprised when he looked around the room and saw that the dance actually looked really nice. But then he flinched, as he heard a familiar sound.

Giggles.

He looked to his left and felt a small smile appear on his face when he was met with the sight of his favorite hyung muffling laughter behind his palm.

He looked to BangChan (usually the one most attentive of Minho---NO Jisung was not jealous, thank-you for asking) to see if he had noticed.  
And sure enough, Chan was talking in low tones with Woojin who tried and failed to take an inconspicuous glance at Minho, who was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

Even Jeongin and Seungmin, who were known for not paying attention to his surroundings had noticed their giggly bandmate.

“Should we take a break?” Seungmin asked, concerned for his hyung’s mental health.

Minho paused the song. “Ah, okay, 15 minute break.”

Jisung made to go over to Lee Know but Chan beat him to it.  
“Minnie, are you okay?” BangChan asked.

Minho snickered. “Of course I’m okay.”

Chan gave him one of those “oh-really” looks.

“Should we just call off practice early for the day?”

“I mean… are you sure everybody has their parts down?”  
“Everyone has their parts down, Minnie, don’t worry.

Minho nodded and plopped on the floor, “Ooh, that was exhausting.”

BangChan sits next to the main dancer and plays with his hair.

Woojin claps his hands twice to get the attention of his bandmates. “Okay, everyone, dance practice is over!”

Minho sighs and lies his head on BangChan’s shoulder. “Hyuuuunnggg~ I don’t feel like getting up.”

BangChan smiles and lifts up Lee Know, smiling when the other’s eyes slowly drift shut. “Alright everyone, let’s head to the van 가사!”


	2. The Argument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an argument, Minho is confused, and Han is frustrated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So, I’m not exactly sure what I said about rooming in the other chapter, so I’m going to go ahead and clarify, who’s rooming together since I decided to change it a little:
> 
> Jeongin & Seungmin  
> Minho & Changbin  
> Felix & Chan  
> Hyunjin & Han

Han stared ahead, looking at the middle row seat in the van, a frown on his face. Minho and Felix were laughing about some sort of funny video they found on the internet, while Hyunjin laughed with them. He was seated next to Seungmin and Jeongin, who were smiling at eachother like there was no tomorrow.

They had gone home after a long day, but Han still felt grumpy and tired. Looking at Minho so carefree and happy made him happy, of course, but…. He wanted to be the cause of that smile, not someone else.

Was that really too much to ask for?

Han sighed, biting his lip. What should he do? Say something about his feelings…? No way! That would be stupid… or even catastrophic, if it would put their friendship in jeopardy.

“Okay, everyone!” Bang Chan exclaimed, “We’ve finally arrived. Uh, we’ll be having dinner in maybe 3 hours, but besides that you have a free schedule, so have fun for the rest of the day!”

They all smiled at their leader (with the exception of Han) and quickly got out of the car. Minho was about to do the same, when he noticed Han still grumpily sitting in the back seat. “Oy, Han! Whatcha doing back there?”

Han shrugged, and turned his back to Minho. Now that he had started to wallow in self pity, he just couldn’t stop. He just wanted to kiss the living daylights out of the older--

“Han?” Minho’s voice brought Han out of his daydream. “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“Nothing….”

Minho shook his head, “This won’t do!” He pulled Han’s arm towards him, so they were both close to each other, face to face. Minho giggled, and touched the others nose with his finger, “Boop!” He exclaimed playfully.

Han rolled his eyes at his childish hyung.

“See!” Minho exclaimed, “You just rolled your eyes at me! Me, your favorite hyung! Something must be wrong.”

“Nothing, nothing’s wrong!” Han stubbornly persisted.

“Are you sure--”

“Can you stop?” Han mumbled.

“What?” Minho asked, “I didn’t hear you, are you okay?”

“I’M FINE, OKAY? CAN YOU STOP BEING SO ANNOYING ALL THE TIME? JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! I’M SO SICK OF YOU! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” Han shouted, livid.

“I-I…” Minho stuttered. “O-Okay, uh… I guess I’ll see you later then…” And he quickly got out of the car.

Once he was out of hearing range, Han sighed loudly. He really screwed things up, didn’t he?

3 Hours Later: At Dinner…

Minho dejectedly ate his japchae with his chopsticks, poking at the stir-fried noodles with a frown on his face.

Han, on the other hand, gritted his teeth and stuffed the noodles into his mouth, breathing heavily.

The other bandmates were chattering amicably amongst themselves, with the exception of Chan, who had figured out something was wrong between the two. If there was one thing Chan hated, it was conflict between certain members of the group, but sometimes, conflict makes relationships stronger, so, Chan resolved, he would wait til the end of dinner, and if Han and Minho still hadn’t solved whatever was bothering them, Chan would step in.

Chan carefully examined the two of them, the way Han looked furious, and Minho looked so sad… hm, did that mean Han was mad at Minho? Chan wondered what exactly happened to make Han so mad at the other. ‘I should bring it up with Minho first, in case Han is still upset about what happened.’ He thought.

Once dinner ended, the rest of the members went to their own rooms, they would probably chat with their roommates or play games on their phones before it was actually time to go to bed though.

“Hey, Minho, can I talk to you for a second?” Chan asked gently.

“Huh!?” Minho looked around. “Oh, sorry I zoned out, uh, sure.”

Chan guided Minho to the room which he shared with Felix, which was currently empty, since Felix was probably talking with Changbin.

“So, I wanted to ask, what’s going on with you and Han?”

“Uh…. going on?”

“Yeah, you both seemed really upset at dinner today.”

“Oh, it’s my fault, er, I noticed Han looked upset in the backseat of the van earlier today, and so I tried to get him to tell me what was wrong, but I guess he just wanted to be alone, so he yelled at me. Sorry for causing trouble.” Minho whispered meekly.

“Huh?” Chan asked, confused. Usually, when it was an argument with any other member, Minho would firmly declare that it was under no circumstance his fault. ‘It’s odd to see him so… sad’

“Okay, you stay here, I’m going to talk to Jisung about this now.”

Minho nodded.

Chan walked out of the room, closing the door behind him, and went to Han and Hyunjin’s room to get Han.

He knocked on the door, “Han, can you please come out for a second?”

“Okay!” Came the response from the other side of the door. Han came out of the room, a bewildered expression on his face. “What is it, hyung?”

Chan explained, “You are going to follow me and talk to Minho about whatever this conflict is, okay?”

“C’mere.” Chan opened the door where he left Minho, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

Minho was sobbing into his hand, stifling his cries as silent tears slid down his face, he gasped when he saw Han come in, and ran over to the younger, hugging him.

“Ohmygosh, Hannie--” Minho hiccuped, tears still streaming down his face. “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t bear it if you were mad at me, please don’t be mad at me, please..” He hiccuped again, and stopped hugging the other, instead dropping to his knees, “Forgive me?”

Chan watched the exchange, alarmed. He knew that Minho was probably the most impulsive person he ever met, doing everything on a whim, and coupling that with his extreme mood swings and personality, weird things usually happened when one was around Lee Minho.

Still, he would never expect to see Minho literally get on his knees in front of someone to beg for forgiveness. Whatever happened must have been something bad.

“You’re literally my best friend, Sungie, don’t be mad?” Minho sniffed.

Even through the heart-felt apology, there was only one word that could register in Han’s mind.”

Friend.


	3. Mirror Rant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SKZ goes to a restaurant, and some interesting things happen.

“I...friend....no….” Han muttered, confused. Why wasn’t his brain working? What was going on? “Er…”

Minho looked up at him hopefully.

“Urgh…” He willed the words to come out of his mouth. “Yeah, Minho, you’re my best….friend too, uh, ‘course I forgive you….sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

Chan sensed the awkward tension in the room, and decided it was time to intervene. “Alrighty then, time to go sleep! He ushered Han back to his room, going through each of the 4 rooms making sure everyone was asleep, then finally settling in his own room with Felix.

Minho sighed, feeling confused. His earlier encounter with Jisung had left him kind of upset, the latter seemed totally distracted and out of it….hmmm…. Minho scanned his brain for a possible answer about the strange behavior, but came up with nothing.

Han on the other hand felt like slapping himself. ‘What was that?’ He berated himself, totally frustrated. He had let himself gotten all tongue-tied in front of Minho, thankfully he didn’t say anything outright stupid. Thought a part of him did wish he had confessed his feelings, just so see how Minho would react….. No! That would never happen. ‘No matter what, I will take my feelings for Minho to the grave!’ Jisung resolved.

+

The next morning, all was quiet, Changbin and Han were the only ones at the table, Changbin laying his arms on the table and resting his head on them, snoring quietly.

The silence, however, was shattered once a certain member of the maknae line bursted in. “Guys, guys, guys, guess what!?” Felix exclaimed.

“What?” Han asked.

“You know, I just asked Channie hyung, and he said, that because we all were working so hard, and we don’t have schedules today, we can go to ‘Jungsik Seoul’!”

“Jungsik Seoul?” Changbin inquired, still half asleep.

“It’s a really famous South Korean restaurant, they have, like, the best food ever, I heard! With really great abalone kimbap and it’s a five star restaurant!”

“Wow….” Han replied, surprised. “Wouldn’t it be expensive though?”

“Ay, Chan is paying, so it’s fine.”

“Oy!” Came an exclamation from Chan, who finally popped his head out of his room. “What am I paying for?”

“Apparently, our food at Jungsik Seoul.” Changbin smirked.

Chan scowled at the rapper. “No way, we are going to split the bill evenly.”

“What are we splitting evenly?” The two maknaes came out of their shared room, yawning.

“Okay, I’ll fill you all in, where are Hyunjin and Lee Know?”

“Oh, still asleep, I’ll go get them.” Jeongin said, walking to Hyunjin’s room, Seungmin walked to Minho’s room and they both knocked on the doors. Once everyone was seated at the table, Chan explained their lunch plans.

“Wowwwwww, hyung, you’re a great leader, treating your dongsaengs to lunch like this!” Minho winked.

Chan rolled his eyes. “You know, I was going to insist we pay it evenly, but since everybody is already assuming I’m paying, I might as well, guess my wallet will soon be 150,000 won lighter.” He laughed good-naturedly.

The other members at the table laughed, and started eating breakfast.

Later, At Lunch, Jungsik Seoul Restaurant:

Minho looked at his menu bewildered, “What’s the difference between the kimchi here,” He pointed to the left side of the menu, “And the kimchi there?” He pointed to the right.

Jeongin, who was sitting next to him, shrugged, “I don’t know, everything looks so fancy and expensive here, I’m kind of scared.” He chuckled.

Chan shook his head at their conversation, “Don’t worry, boys.” He attempted a classy accent, “I got you covered.” Once the waitress arrived at their table, Chan smiled at her and began to order, “Okay, so, today I would like to order...” The members watched in awe as their leader quickly listed off several different dishes, ending his order with a, “and 8 cold waters with ice, thank you!” The waitress nodded, “You’re order will be ready soon,” and then left.

“Wah~ Hyung, you looked so cool ordering!” Felix exclaimed. “How did you say all that so clearly?”

“Well, I might have memorized a lot of the dishes.” Chan admitted. “I’ve been wanting to go to this restaurant for a long time now,” He laughed.

“Oh, I have to go to the bathroom, do you know where it is?” Han asked the leader.

Chan nodded, pointing towards the back of the room, where the bathroom was, and Han promptly went in.

He stood in front of the sink and mirror, frowning at the smooth surface. For a couple of minutes he just stood there, but then he began to speak,   
“I really like him…” He started talking to his own reflection, searching for catharsis of some sort. “I think he’s really pretty, and sweet, and kind, and talented, and he’s so amazing--” 

He was interrupted from his ranting by the sounds of soft footsteps coming from the door. But there wasn’t the sound of a creaky un-oiled door hinge opening, meaning the person had come in before he started ranting his feelings and heard everything.

How embarrassing…

But it was even more embarrassing once Han so who exactly that person was, Han sighed. Of all the people, did it have to be... “Minho?”


	4. Painful 사랑

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Han feels himself sinking deeper into the dark pit of love, but he's too late to find his way out now, isn't he?

“Oh, Hannie?” Minho asked, voice going up in a question. “Er… who were you talking to? Or, who were you talking about?

Han paused, “Uhm, it’s, someone … I really like, and I’ve been too much of a coward to confess my feelings, so, well,”

“Aaw, Sungie, it’s okay! It’s totally normal to be shy around someone you like.” Minho comforted. “And, it’s also okay if you don’t want to tell me who it is, but I promise I’ll be supportive of you, no matter what!” The older boy smiled warmly, and Jisung could have died on the spot.

“I...er… thanks?”

“No problem! You know, I could even help you out with how to confess your feelings! I’m a bit of an expert when it comes to love.” He winked playfully.

“More like when it comes to sexy dancing.” Han scoffed.

“See! You admitted I’m sexy!”

“Psh— What— When—”

“Ay, well, remember to come to your favorite hyung whenever you need help with anything, I’ll keep this a secret between us. Okay, now it’s time to head back to our table!” Minho giggled.

Han let himself be dragged by the wrist by the older and slowly let himself for deeper into the deep, dark, pit of love.

+

Later, After Lunch, In The Van:

“Waaa~ That was delicious!” Felix exclaimed, patting his stomach. “Everything was so good, it’s no wonder it’s a five star restaurant!”

Chan nodded in agreement, then sighed, “How long is dance practice tomorrow? Sorry, I forgot…”

Minho spoke up, “We’re going over the Endless Waves choreography, then the Flash Of Light choreography, and that’s it! But I do want it to be perfect, so it may take a bit of time.” Hyunjin nodded along.

Han grinned as Minho dropped his head on the other’s shoulder. He made sure to wrap his arm around Minho’s waist, but then got paranoid. ‘Are we too close? Will people suspect it? Er...no, skinship is normal, right? Hh…’ He frowned.

Minho nudged him lightly with his head. “Oy, stop thinking so loudly, I can hear you from here! Smileeeeee~” He put his two index fingers on the edge of Han’s lips and turned them upward, turning his facial expression into a manic sort of grin.

The others laughed at the sweet exchange between the two, and the van was filled with the quiet but lively buzz of chatter for the rest of the ride back home.

Back At The Dorms, 8 P.M.

The boys had gathered around the TV in the living room of their dorms, watching some sort of show, a couple of them were totally immersed in the drama, while most of them just scrolled through their phones, occasionally looking up when something interesting happened.

The atmosphere of the room was peaceful and homey, a sore contrast to the nervous churning of Han’s stomach.

“Uh, I’m going to go ahead to sleep, see you guys tomorrow.” Han said bye to his group mates with a small nod, the others responding with small “mhm,”’s of acknowledgement.

Jisung settled into his bed underneath the covers, breathing heavily. It wasn’t fair, honestly. What gave Minho the right to make him breathless with a single sweep of his hair? Or make his heart flutter with his light hiccuping giggle?

‘So this is love? It’s painful. I’m flying so high, but I know it’ll hurt more when I crash to the ground.’


	5. Passed Out

(At the Dorms, 6PM:)

Jisung scrolled through his phone. To an outsider, he may look completely indifferent and calm, probably reading through a digital news article, or looking through his Twitter feed, but on the inside he was an absolute mess. He was looking through all of the pictures he had saved of Minho. He had quite a lot, you know.

Pictures of him making some sort of cheesy pose, doing aegyo, or acting all flirty.

But there were also more candid shots. Ones of him drawing in his sketchbook, that look of absolute focus and concentration he adopted on his face when painting. Well, more like spattering random splashes of paint on the canvas and calling it art, but it was made by Minho, and was therefore beautiful by association.

There were also tons of videos of him dancing. There were the ones of him rehearsing old choreo, or of him making up dances himself. Honestly, Jisung thought the process of making raps was hard, but seeing Minho randomly wave his hands in the air in hope of being struck by inspiration for a new dance was an eye-opener to how hard choreographing really was. The thought made him laugh aloud. In all honesty, Minho could make even the hardest of things seem easy.

“Oh, Sungie?” Minho asked, opening the door to his room. They had just finished dance practice, and to be completely honest, Jisung felt like his legs would fall off if he even thought about getting up.

“Yeah, hyung?”

“Your blushing.” The older giggled. “Are you thinking about your secret crush again?”

“Er, yeah, I guess something like that?”

“You know…” Minho sighed wistfully, taking a seat next to Jisung on the bed. “I’ve always wanted to go on a date with someone.”

“Eouh?”

Minho nodded. “I mean, think about it? Wouldn’t it be so nice… I would love to hold their hand, and walk along the beach shore with them, and they would smile at me, and hold me, oh, and can you imagine someone confessing to you? Wouldn’t that be amazing? I would love to receive a bouquet of lilacs, you know.”

“But hyung…” Han thought. “Why are you telling this to me?”

“Practice, you know.”

“Practice?”

“Mhm, for when you confess to your crush.”

“Ay, hyung… I honestly don’t think that’ll ever happen, if I did, I doubt he would feel the same way.”

Minho shook his head furiously. “No, no, no, trust me, if you like someone, you should confess, no matter what.”

“But what if it puts our friendship in jeopardy!?” Jisung exclaimed, frustrated.

“Our...friendship?”

“Er, the friendship between me and this person.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about that, if they’re really your friends, it shouldn’t change anything, right?”

“Right.” ‘It’s now or never.’ “Minho, it turns out… the one… you… I like…” He muttered under his breath, unable to speak any louder than a low mumble.

“Oh!” Minho clapped his sound excitedly, not hearing what Han had said. “I forgot the reason I came over here. I was wondering, did you wanna practice your dance solo?”

“Dance solo?”

“Yeah! I thought the concept of the solo was pretty cool, so I wondered if ya wanted to see it?”

Han sighed inwardly, wincing at the prospect of having to dance more, but not being able to find it in himself to say no to Minho.

“Sure, hyung.”

(At the Dance Studio, 6:20PM:)

“Okay, so for this part…” Minho explained animatedly, “It’s going to look like you’re flying! And then we shine a light on you, and that’s when we sing the chorus, for the M\V.”

“Sounds interesting.” Han said in reply. “Uh, but how exactly am I supposed to fly?”

“Let me show ya!” Minho smiled, “So, we’ve decided that Hyunjin is going to be the one to lift you up,”

“Hyunjin?”

“Yeah, uh, we haven’t recorded the M\V for my solo yet, and I need to stay under, uh… let me think of what hyungnim said… I just know that I need to loose a little weight, so we just decided Hyunjin would be the best one to lift you up. Anyway, all of us will sit down in a way that will make us like stairs, and you’ll climb on top of us to get to Hyunjin, who will lift you up, and the flash of light will fall on your face.”

“Oh, I see. So, how exactly will the lifted up thing … work?”

“Let me show you,” He walked over to Han, gently placing his hands on Jisung’s arms, lifting them up above his head. “This is the position you’ll be in. Like a star. Woo, did you work out, Sungie? You’ve got some serious arm muscle.”

Han laughed, blushing bright red. “Right…”

“Well, anyway…” Minho spent a couple of minutes explaining the choreography in depth, though Han couldn’t pay attention, due to the way Minho’s dark hair fell into his eyes in strands, and the way his mouth moved when he talked, and how his tongue occasionally darted out of his mouth to wet his lower lip, and he idly wondered--

‘Ew, no, don’t have those types of thoughts here.’ Jisung berated himself.

“Then for this last part,” Minho paused, frowning.

“Eouh? What is it?” Han asked, noticing the lack of chatter from his hyung.

Han watched in shock as Minho’s body slowly met the floor with a soft thud, his eyes closed.

He… passed out?

“H-Hyung?”


	6. Holding Hands

“Hyung? Hyung?” Jisung shook the older’s body, willing him to wake up. 

His eyes slowly fluttered open, dark brown eyes latching onto Han’s. 

“Hyung?”

“Yeah?” Minho sat up, looking at his surroundings, a confused expression on his face. “Why am I down here?”

“Oh, you just… fainted?”

“Oh. Yeah, that happens sometimes.” Minho laughed sheepishly.

“This has happened before?”

“Uh, yeah, it happened to me before I became a trainee though. I guess I just kind of faint when I feel really tired?”

“Oy, hyung, don’t overwork yourself, okay? Stop when you feel tired.”

“Ahhhhh, my heart.” Minho exclaimed dramatically, “Sungie is so caring, isn’t he?” 

Jisung blushed. “Okay, well, let’s go back to the dorms, shall we?”

“No, no, no.” Minho shook his head, protesting adamantly. “I have a better idea!” 

Fifteen minutes of walking later, Jisung looked around. They were in a beautiful, but rather isolated area, where once could see the stars out in the night sky, even though it was only around 7PM. Nearby was a small lake, a dock stoof over it, and Minho guided Han over to it. 

“Sometimes, when too many things are running through my head, I love standing here and staring at the depths of water.” Minho explained, a small contented smile on his face. 

Han hummed in agreement. “You know hyung, I really like spending time with you like this.” Han admitted. 

“Same.” Minho uttered in agreement, his gaze still focused on the bright bluish green of the lake. 

His hand slowly found it’s way to Han’s, and he interlaced his finger’s with the younger.


	7. Bloody And Bruised

The next day, after dance and vocal practice, Minho was walking to the 24/7 Convenience store for ramen. It was rather late at night, around 9, but all his group mates were hungry and there was nothing in the fridge, so Minho offered to go get something for them all to eat. Currently, he felt a bit lost, as there were no people nearby, and the usual honking of cars that would fill the air in late night Seoul. This is what he got for not paying attention while he was walking

But he wasn’t too alarmed, he was sure he would eventually find his way back eventually, he was reassuring himself of this fact, when he suddenly felt something cold and hard hit his head, and all went black. 

He woke up to the unpleasant feeling of something wet trickling down his forehead, and the aching of his legs, arms, stomach, and basically every part of his body. He looked up to see a group of tall, muscly looking men exiting the alley way he was in, and he called out weakly. “Hey!” One of the men looked back at him, and his nose scrunched up in disgust, and followed the rest of the men. 

He was alone. 

Minho immediately looked for his wallet, and sighed loudly when he couldn’t find it. A group of random guys had assaulted him with what he assumed was a metal pipe, and it hurt like anything. 

He put a hand on his head, flinching when his fingers came in contact with a large cut on the top of his head, his hand now completely red. 

He tried getting up, but went right back down as soon as he got an inch off from the ground. His phone was cracked, dead and broken, and he had no means of contacting any one. 

He tried getting up again, crying out when white hot pain shot up his spine, his stomach aching. His ribs were probably broken. 

His head was pounding, and he was hyper aware of the crickets chirping, he had no idea what time it was because his phone was broken (he didn’t have a watch) and the pain was so bad it made him feel nauseous, and it was probably late at night. He couldn’t get up. Oh, shoot.

So, here he was, bloody and bruised in an alleyway somewhere, no way to contact his bandmates, no money, and he couldn’t even get up. This sure was a sucky situation. He pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his head on his knees, and unable to stay awake any longer with the fatigue and pain, he fell asleep. 

-

Meanwhile, Chan was panicking. It had been 3 hours since Minho had gone to the convenience store to buy ramen, and it was 12AM, and he still wasn’t back. His bandmates had started getting worried the second it turned 10, but Chan convinced them not to worry. He told them that the dancer was just taking his time, walking slowly, not wanting the younger males to overreact. 

But now, he was regretting it. If he had gone out searching for Minho once Jeongin mentioned how late it had gotten, he wouldn’t be in this situation. 

12AM and Minho still wasn’t back. The members were distraught, worried about the 2nd oldest member, they were all gathered around the living room, various degrees of panic on their faces. The maknae-liners were all biting their nails, fidgeting with frowns on their faces. Meanwhile, Hyunjin and Changbin looked pretty calm, but Chan knew that there was a storm of distress brewing inside them, despite their calm appearance. Han looked like he was a second away from bursting into tears, practically tearing his hair out in frustration. 

Chan looked at his bandmates one more, and finally came to a solution. “Changbin,” He addressed the rapper, the one who looked the calmest and most rational out of all of them, and the third oldest. “Changbin, go to search for Minho near the 24/7 Convenience Store, okay? Your phone is fully charged, right?”

Changbin nodded, standing up. 

“Contact us if something goes wrong or you get lost, if you still can’t find him by 1AM, come back. Okay?”

“Mhm.” Changbin hummed in agreement, toeing on his shoes, putting on his jacket, and leaving. 

The first thing Changbin noticed was how damp the air was. It was quite cold, and Changbin suspected that it would start raining soon. He began his walk to the convenience store, knowing the path by heart, since they went there as a group quite a lot when they were trainees. 

He tried to think like Minho, as a way to figure out where the older was. ‘He probably wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking…’ Changbin thought, speeding up his walk slightly. He wanted to find Minho as soon as possible, and then promptly scold his childish hyung for being so incredibly careless. 

As Changbin had predicted, it had started to rain, and the pitter-patter of soft raindrops filled his ears, the water making small puddles of the ground. This only made him walk faster, until he was running, running as fast as he could, trying to find his hyung. Eventually he gave up on being discreet and started shouting, “MINHO! MINHO! HYUNG, WHERE ARE YOU?” He checked his phone, frowning when he realized the time was 12:30AM, he had 30 more minutes to find Minho, and his search was not going well. 

He was about to call it quits and head home, convinced that no amount of searching would help him find Minho. But suddenly he heard quiet crying coming from one of the alleyways… he followed the sound, looking for the source of the noise, when his eyes latched on a familiar figure. 

“H-H-Hyung?” 

And there, broken, bruised and bloody, was Minho.


	8. Not Alone

Changbin looked at Minho, eyes widened in shock. “Hyung? Are you okay? Hyung?” He shook Minho, trying to get him to wake up. Minho’s eyes still didn’t open, much to Changbin’s dismay. He quickly pulled out his phone from his pocket, clicking on Chan’s contact. 

“Chan? I’ve found Minho…” He spoke into the phone.  
Chan immediately responded, sounding incredibly relieved and excited. “You found him?!”

“He’s in an alleyway right now, all beaten and bruised… he’s not waking up… what should I do?”

Changbin could hear shallow, quick, breaths through the phone, until he heard Chan speak quietly. “I don’t want to let the other members know about this, they're worried enough as it is… the younger ones look so upset, and Han is practically about to explode… It’s too much, can you just… take him to the hospital?” Chan tried to sound calm, but it was almost impossible with the mounting pressure surrounding him, pressing in on all sides. 

One of the members was hurt… no, one of his members was hurt. Even though he didn’t directly cause Minho’s injuries, he still felt a ridiculous amount of guilt. It was choking, snaking its way from the bottom of his stomach to the beginning of his throat, suffocating him, and Chan felt absolutely helpless. But he couldn’t lose hope yet, he still had to take care of his members. 

It’s **them** first. Then me **after**

And Chan believed that with his whole heart. 

Changbin replied to his question, voice strained. “Of course, hyung…”

Chan immediately felt sorry. He relied on Changbin a lot, because unlike Minho, who had a quite carefree and childish nature, Changbin was a lot more mature and responsible. With a quick grunt of approval, he hung up the phone, and was met with eager cries from his other bandmates. 

Jisung immediately started in a loud shout, “Did he find Minho? Is he okay?”

Chan bit his lip, internally debating on what to say. “He… he may be in a bit of trouble, but… it’s going to be alright, okay, everyone? It’s going to be alright.” 

The members all looked pretty satisfied with Chan’s explanation, except Jisung, who still looked frustrated. “Listen everyone, it’s a bit of a complicated situation… but you all need to go to sleep down, it’ll be alright when you wake up. Han, Jeongin, Felix, Seungmin, Hyunjin, go, go, go!” He playfully shoved them away, and they all went to their respective rooms. 

He sat on the couch, wanting to go to bed, but he just couldn’t let himself fall asleep when Minho could possibly be hurt. 

(MEANWHILE, WITH CHANGBIN)

Changbin wrapped Minho’s arm around his neck, hoisting him up. Minho was actually pretty light for Changbin, who worked out pretty regularly, but the height difference still made it difficult for Changbin to support him. He was still unconscious, but Changbin was still able to support Minho’s weight. 

“Minnie hyung…” Changbin let the nickname slip, “I’ll take care of you…” He walked out of the alleyway, which led him to a rather populated area, in stark contrast to the dark alleyway. There was a hospital nearby, and Changbin estimated he could walk the awkward limp of trying to support an unconscious person for about 10 minutes before arriving at the hospital. 

Walking ten minutes like that was definitely a challenge, but Changbin was able to do it. He came into the hospital, immediately rushing to the desk in front. The nurse’s eyes immediately focused on Minho. “Is that…?” She asked, trailing off. “It’s my hyung.” Changbin explained. “I think… er… the situation is hard to explain, but he isn’t waking up, I.. uh…” The nurse, **Jeong-ae** as her nametag read, took charge of the situation, standing up from her desk and taking Minho away from Changbin, and called to one of the other nurses. “Hyungwon, can you please lead this person to a room? It looks like he’s unconscious.” She pointed to Minho, and Hyungwon, a tall, male nurse went to do what Jeong-ae had asked. 

After what felt like a blur of worry and anticipation, Changbin was seated at the waiting room, waiting for someone to tell him what was going to happen. After around half an hour, the nurse, Hyungwon, came out of the room, holding a clipboard. “If you could please fill out these forms, that would be excellent, thank you.” Hyungwon asked briskly. 

Changbin filled out the form, which was asking the basic things like the patient's full name, age, medical conditions and allergies, all while anxiety was coiling in his stomach. After he filled out the form, Hyungwon came and collected it. Changbin pulled out his phone from his pocket, “Chan? I… can you come to the hospital? It’s the one closest to the dorms. I totally get it if you’re too tired, but… I don’t want to be alone right now…,” He whispered the last part quietly, waiting for Chan to respond. 

A couple of seconds later, he did. “I’ll be there soon.”


	9. White Bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya’ll, I’m so sorry, I kind of forgot about updating this thing, and I really wanted to get a chapter out today, so I’m sorry if this chapter is a bit short, I’m working on a longer installment which should be out sometime by the end of the week!

A little while later, Chan had arrived at the hospital, worry and weariness written clearly on his face. “Changbin?” 

The rapper turned and saw Chan, and offered him a small smile. “Hi, hyung.” The older sat by Changbin and the two stayed there for some time, before Hyungwon walked up to them. 

“Gentlemen? You can come into Minho-ssi’s room now, it’s the last door down the hall.” He pointed in the direction of the room and nodded. 

Chan led the way, Changbin following behind him, and then the two of them went inside. 

Chan had been trying to mentally prepare himself, because of course the sight of one of his members being hurt would be unsettling, to say the least, but despite that, he was still shocked. 

Minho was lying on the hospital bed, looking deathly pale, with an IV hooked up to his arms, and a few other tubes disappearing under the covers. A doctor opened the door and went inside, a grim expression on his face as he began to speak. 

“The patient appears to be suffering from head trauma, meaning something hit him, probably a pipe or pole of some sort, seeing the bruise on his head, which indicates a concussion. He also has some bruising on his rib cartilage, that is pretty severe, and quite a few bruises in other areas as well. I think he should make a full recovery in maybe 5 weeks.”

“5 weeks?” Changbin repeated incredulously. The thought of having to see his cheerful and excited hyung, who loved moving around, walking, and dancing, not being able to do any of that made his heart ache. 

“The bruised ribs should take around 4 weeks to fully heal, and the concussion recovery period for this particular patient is estimated to be a little bit longer than that. I recommend no strenuous physical activities or looking at a screen. He should be ready to head home in… a week or so.” 

Changbin bit his lower lip, breathing sharply. How could this have happened? I can’t believe this happened to Minnie…

Chan put a hand on Changbin’s shoulder, hoping to reassure him. “It’s going to be okay.”

And Changbin sincerely hoped that Chan was right.


	10. Maximum Tension

Five hours had passed, and it was nearing 6:30AM. Chan and Changbin had both fallen asleep at Minho’s bedside, both eagerly hoping that the dancer would wake up, and being sorely disappointed when he didn’t. After one too many of these disappoints, the two decided that it would be best just to go back to the dorms and visit him again later. They told this to the nurse, who nodded and reminded them to visit soon. 

They walked out of the automated doors, greeted with the peaceful early morning sunrise, contrasting to their inner turmoil. 

Changbin gritted his teeth, breaking the silence of the morning, he asked angrily, “Who did that to him? They beat him up! I can’t believe it… They’re scum…” 

Chan looked in alarm at the younger. “Changbin-ah, let’s not worry about the people who did it, instead, Minho—” 

“NO!” Changbin shouted, projecting his rage at his leader. “SOMEONE HURT MINHO! THAT’S AWFUL!” He felt so protective over his hyung, it was almost tearing him out inside. Though the older often teased him, or mocked him, Changbin knew it was all out of affection, and he loved the childish joy that sparkled in Minho’s eyes whenever he smiled back at him, or gave him a gift. Minho was his best friend, and nothing would ever change that. 

“Changbin.” Chan tried to be a voice of reason, calm, collected, and rational. “For now, let’s worry about making sure Minho is healthy, okay?” 

Changbin nodded, agreeing externally, while internally he was seething. He decided to store away his rage for now, trying to focus on remaining calm, although every time he even thought about Minho’s attackers, ugly rage bubbled up inside him. No. Now was not the time to seek revenge. Now was the time to help Minho. He sighed deeply, which attracted the attention of Chan. 

“You okay, Binnie?” 

“Yes.” 

The two drove off in Chan’s car back to the dorms. 

The second Changbin opened the door, he felt someone practically tackle him to the floor. He looked up in alarm, only to be greeted with the dirty blond hair of Felix. “Felix? What are you doing?” Felix wrapped his arms around Changbin’s waist, and looked the shorter straight into the eye. “I was so worried about you! I woke up, and I went to your room, and neither you or Minho were there, and Chan wasn’t there either…” He glared at Changbin. “Don’t you dare worry me like that again!” 

Changbin scoffed at Felix’s worried rant. “It’s not like anything happened—er…” He trailed off. “We’re.. going to tell them, right?” He looked at Chan, who nodded grimly. 

“Guys, we have something to tell you. It’s about Minho.” The rest of the band had gathered to the front of the door from the dining room, all their attention on Chan and Changbin. 

“Minho got beaten up, and his money was stolen, and he’s at the hospital right now. The doctor says it’ll take him 5 weeks to fully recover.” He waited for their reaction. Most of them looked to be in shock, not moving or speaking, their faces practically frozen as their minds processed the information.” 

Han immediately spoke up. “Can I see him?” 

“Oh…I think we need to work on the choreography…” Chan froze, cursing his carelessness. Mentioning the choreography while Minho was in the hospital? He didn’t mean to sound so insensitive. 

“The choreography…” Jeongin muttered, sounding choked up. “Minho’s…. choreography.”

“Okay, scratch what I just said.” Chan responded. “Today…. Today you can all visit Minho.” 

They all nodded, and headed to the car. 

A 10 minute car-drive later, they’d arrive at the hospital, and all seven of them stood right outside Minho’s dorm. 

There was an air of somber silence around the group, and the tension was thick, then, Chan opened the door.


	11. The Path

The nine of them rushed into the room, and Han’s eyes immediately locked on Minho’s. A bright smile erupted on the older’s face, and he shot up from his laid back position into an upright one, sitting straight up on the bed. “Guys!” Minho addressed, a large grin on his face. “C’mere!” He held out his arms for a hug, and the maknae-liners rushed into his arms. He laughed at their eagerness. “It’s not like I’ve been gone for months,” He giggled. 

“It feels like it’s been a month!” Jeongin frowned, wrapping an arm around Minho’s shoulders. “Don’t do that again, hm, hyung? From now on, let’s never let one of us go outside without someone else going with them. Okay?” “Okay, okay, if it makes you feel better. Sit next to me!” He beckoned for Jeongin to take a seat next to him. 

“You know, I can come home with you guys next week, cool, right?” He grinned at the rest of the group, who had seated themselves on the chairs near Minho’s bed. 

“Minho hyung… are you really… okay?” Changbin asked, tracing Minho’s facial expression for any hints of negative emotion or pain. “It hurts, right?” 

The wide smile on Minho’s face disappeared. “It hurts, but… it’s not permanent, so I shouldn’t mind it too much, right?” 

Changbin tsked. “The doctor said you bruised some of your ribs. That’s got to be extremely painful.”

“If I don’t think about it, it doesn’t hurt as much. So whenever they hurt, I always distract myself by thinking of new choreography ideas.” 

“Okay, enough about that,” Chan interrupted, and pulled out an iPad from his bag. “Wanna watch something together?” 

The group of eight watched random shows together, laughing at the funny parts, Lee Know leaning against his band members, and the rest of the day passed that way. 

-

(A WEEK LATER)

A week later, all of SKZ were in the van together, driving Minho home. The doctor had said as long as Minho didn’t have any physical activity or stress, he should recover soon, and they were all equally looking forward to Minho being healthy again. 

But to be honest, Seumgin was more concerned than the rest of his bandmates. He knew Minho could be quite… melodramatic, and he was surprised that his hyung didn’t seem to be struggling with his injuries, as he was giggling and talking like he would always do, but he couldn’t help but feel like something was amiss. Ugh, I shouldn’t be so pessimistic… it’s possible for injuries to heal fast… Seungmin thought to himself. 

(THAT NIGHT, 9PM)

Chan sighed wearily as he plopped himself down on his bed. This had been an exhausting few weeks, hadn’t? One of the members had been hospitalized, the rest had been emotionally distraught, and even though he felt that he was about to burst at the seams, he knew that he couldn’t explode. He had to be calm, and collected, to handle it well. Handle it like a leader. 

Meanwhile, Han had broken into a sweat. It was the type of sweating you got while thinking of an important decision, the type of sweat and doubt that came with thoughts with ‘Should I do it?’ ‘Should I not do it?’ the doubt which rose up in your stomach when you thought of what would happen one way, or another, and the feelings you get when you’re at a cross-road. But the two roads fork, and you know that once you go down one, you’ll never be able to leave. But accompanying the doubt, comes the feeling of exhilaration, with the knowledge that down one road is an opportunity. An opportunity to be something that you never would have thought you could be. 

In Minho’s mind, he could see the two roads as well. He could see the two roads, and he went down one. He walked down the road, the road that turned into the same alleyway that night, but he didn’t have the same thoughts he had then. He didn’t have the innocent thoughts of when he would come back, or how he would come back, but he knew it would be a long time since he could come back. He knew of the pain that lied ahead, and that's what made it all the worse. It was much worse when in his nightmares he waited for the pole to strike. He waited for the cold metal to hit the back of his head, waited for the warm trickle of blood to run down his face and pool on the ground. The surprise of the attack had been replaced with dread, and it was so much worse. It was so much worse when he knew that the metal pole would be replaced with the cruel kicks to the stomach and back.

It hurt more because he knew it wasn’t going to end anytime soon. And that’s when the dark, cold, mist wrapped around him like tendrils and the pain pierced through him. The bruises faded through his skin and went inside him and were replaced with the fear of knowing that he had chosen the wrong path, and there was no way he could turn back. 

The worst part of it, though, was this nightmare kept going, and going, and going. The emotions became bruises and appeared and disappeared and the pain was pulsing, bursting from every nerve and cell in his body and the pain multiplied and spread until he couldn’t handle it anymore. 

Minho got up from his bed, standing up, and then collapsing to the floor, sobbing, it all hurt so much, and it was too much. During the day, the pain was a small buzzing at the back of his mind, but in the night, the same time as the incident, he couldn’t help but have the awful feeling that it would happen again. That the pain, and doubt, the bruises and scars would all come back, and he couldn’t handle it. 

He walked to the living room, immediately curling up on himself on the couch, trying to muffle his sobs, but the painful cries still escaped his mouth and it was still so hard to breathe, so hard to function, so hard to cope. 

Chan was in his room when he heard it. He first heard quiet whimpers and then loud cries, and he immediately got up and went to the living room, wondering what the sound was, when he saw Minho on the couch. “Minnie?” 

And that’s when Han decided. Han decided that he was done waiting for something to happen, done trying to wait and see, he was going to do it. He was going to go down the path. He was going to confess his feelings to Minho, and he was going to do it right now. And with the new found confidence, Han left his room. 

“Minnie?” Chan asked again, watching as Minho looked up from the floor, his face stained with the misty lines of tears running down his cheeks. “Channie hyung… I had an awful nightmare…” A few more tears ran down his face. 

Chan walked over to the younger and sat down by him on the couch, and hugged him. He hugged him as the mental storms passed through Minho’s mind, the storms carrying all the doubt and pain, and Minho knew that the storms would come and go, but it was all the more bearable with someone holding him. Someone holding him in a way that made him think he would never be let go or abandoned again. Chan hugged him tighter, a hand on the back of Minho’s head, fitting the younger’s body into his and holding him close. He wrapped his arms tighter around Minho’s waist, hearing the younger’s muffled cries of “Channie hyung… it hurts…”   
Chan felt Minho’s pain, as if the close proximity between the two’s bodies was able to transfer emotions as well. He spoke loudly, **“Don’t worry, Minnie. I’ll protect you.”**

And it was at that moment when Han, who was standing behind the two on the couch overhearing their conversation, knew that he had walked down the path too late.


	12. The Metaphorical Knife

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the song lyrics, I’m just using some words and then taking the romanizations, but I’ll add a basic translation of them next to the romanization, but know that I’m just making up those lyrics. Well, enjoy the chapter :)
> 
> Also, I have started another book under this account! It's called "Stray Kids Stories - Requests Open!" where you readers can request your own stories for SKZ and I can write them for you! Please check it out ~

“What are you doing?” Minho yawned, watching as Han furiously wrote words on a piece of paper with a pen.

It was early morning, around 6:30 and Han and Minho were the only ones up. Minho couldn't go to bed after his nightmare, so he tried to dance. He danced, and in the process he felt his head split. A hot piercing pain that made him gasp and made his eyes water. Which is why he decided to down two bottles of water, and saw Han aggressively scribble on some notebook paper. 

He snorted. “That pen is pretty much broken, take this.” He handed him a black ink pen. “New song lyrics?” 

Han continued to scribble, tsking as he misspelled a word, “The inspiration is flowing right now, ignore me.” 

Minho looked at the paper a little closer. “gajang meonjeoganeung g-g-gileun eolyeoumgwa? Eol…. eolyoum… g-gwa t-tujhe naui gil-ibnida…. Ahh.”(Translation; The first path is always the one filled with difficulty and struggles) Minho rubbed his eyes. 

Jisung looked up from the paper to see his hyung struggling to read the paper, rubbing his eyes and sighing. “It’s that bad?” 

“Huh? No, of course not, it’s really good, I just got a bit of a headache there for a second, but the lyrics are nice! It’s talking about… the first path? How it’s always filled with struggles and difficulties?” 

“That’s right!” Han snapped his fingers. “It’ll be a song about all the different kinds of paths… is it a good concept?” 

“Totally.” Minho grinned. He sat down next to Han and tried to lay his head on his shoulder, something he always did, but Han stiffened and pulled away, and Minho looked at him, hurt. 

“Ahem…” Han coughed, and went back to his room without a word, leaving Minho behind. 

He frowned, trying to distract himself from the sad feeling he felt by looked at the lyrics, trying to focus on one word at a time, but the characters seemed to escape his mind in a wave of dull pain. 

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” A voice came from behind him. 

“Oh! Jeongin? You’re up early!” 

“Yeah, I heard the bang of a door coming from Han’s dom and it woke me up so I decided to go ahead and get up. “What’s this?” He looked at the paper and read the lyrics aloud. 

Minho smiled softly, “It really sounds like Han, doesn’t it?” 

“It really does.” 

+

The band was in the recording room, recording their vocals for their newest song. It wasn’t too hard for the rest of the members, since the raps and song itself was rather slow and relaxed, but everytime Minho tried to sing, halfway through his line he would wince as his head throbbed. Except now, he also had a stomach ache. It was from hunger, he knew, since the band had stopped for lunch, but he couldn’t eat anything. 

He couldn’t eat because for every bite he took, he couldn’t help but replay the awful feeling he got in his stomach when Han stiffened at his touch and looked at him with that expression. That expression of… disgust. 

So all he could do was slowly sip on his water, watching as Han avoided him, avoided his touches and looks, avoided every attempt he made of contact, and ever avoidance felt like a stab in the stomach, but he couldn’t stop trying to look at him, to get some sort of attention, and it twisted the knife inside the wound in his stomach. 

“Minho? It’s your time to record!” Chan called after he finished his recording. 

Minho stepped into the studio and stood in front of the mic and began to sang, “Nega nan nuneul barabol ttae naneun bamhaneure,” He gasped. “Bam..bamhan…” He rubbed his temple. “I’m so sorry, I messed it up.” 

“No, it’s okay.” Chan firmly reassured the younger. “Are the concussion head-aches acting up?” 

“Uh… yeah, I think that’s it.” He stumbled onto the nearest seat. 

“Hey, hey, hey, are you alright?” Changbin asked, having already finished his rap recording. He sat down next to Minho and turned to look at him. “Do you wanna go home?” 

“No, no, no, I just need to take a break for a few minutes.” He looked around the room, trying to observe his surroundings to calm himself, but it did the opposite. His eyes landed on Jisung, who was absent-mindedly combing his hair. 

His mind took him back to the time only around a few weeks earlier when he combed Han’s hair, and Changbin gave him a necklace as a gift, and the whole band had a Vlive. 

But now Han was ignoring him blatantly and it stuck the metaphorical knife so deep in his body he could feel the blood trickling from his stomach. It was a gruesome metaphor his mind had came up with, but he couldn’t help think that it summed up the situation perfectly.


	13. Tears Of Sorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll, I'm so sorry, ever since school started it's been difficult to update regularly, and I just want to say that I'll probably not get chapters out as often now, but I'm hoping to get one out every Saturday, or maybe every other week? I'm not sure, yet, but I'll try my hardest to continue updating this thing! This chapter is pretty short and angsty, but the story will get lighter and sweeter as it goes :)
> 
> Please enjoy this chapter~

Minho felt pathetic. That was the only way to explain the feeling. The feeling of insignificance. The feeling when the one person he wanted to notice him wouldn’t notice him, wouldn’t look or talk to him, wouldn’t even acknowledge his existence. 

All he wanted to do was to lie in Han’s arms, to have Han hug him, and hold him close, he wanted Han to love him. To love him the way that Minho loved him.

Which is why he was sobbing his eyes out on the floor of the bathroom. It just made his headache worse, and made him want to cry more, with the endless cycle of pain. 

And then the door opened. 

“Minho?” It was Han. 

A part of him felt happy, to see the person he loved, but to be seen in this state made him feel even more pitiful than he already was. 

“Minho? Why are you…?” 

Minho sobbed a little harder. “H-H-Han… I… I just feel so… you keep… i-i-ignoring me… and I… I… I don’t know why, but I’m sorry…” 

Han paused, feeling shocked. “Minho hyung?” He looked at the floor, where a small pool of Minho’s tears were. “How long… were you crying for?” 

“I don’t even know…” Minho hiccuped. “Why… Why were you mad at me? Why were you ignoring me? Why?”

“I saw….” Han debated what to say to him. “Err, let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?” He grabbed a tissue and gently wiped Minho’s tears, helped him get up and sat him on the couch, and Minho laid there. 

He walked down the hall, and saw Chan. He couldn’t deny the slight feeling of envy and resentment he felt towards his leader because of what he had heard him tell Minho earlier, but he still went to him for advice. “Minho hyung… I’m worried about him, Channie, he seems a lot more… emotional lately?” 

Chan nodded, seemingly not concerned. “I researched on it, concussions can cause people to be more emotional, highly irritabile, nervous, tense, or moody, have mood swings, have emotional triggers, random emotional outbursts….Yeah, I read a lot, but I think that Minho’s experiencing right now is fairly normal. It should get better in a few weeks, I think.” 

“I see….” Then Minho isn’t **actually** sad I ignored him… it’s just his concussion acting up…


	14. Apology + Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brief Notice: Now, in addition to my "Stray Kids - Requests Open" fic, I have also started a fic for requests regarding all kpop groups in general, stop by if you have a fic request :P

Hey! Okay, so, first of all, I kind of went on this one-month hiatus without any notice, sorry about that, but I am back and ready to go! XD

I've been reading through these chapters to kind of get a feel for the plot I had, and when drafting the next chapter, I've realized that I have two basic ways for this fic to end. 

The first one, being incredibly angsty and sad. 

The second one being rather fluffy and cute. 

SO, the reason I made this chapter is just as a kind of poll to see how many (if any of you are still reading LOL) of you guys want which kind of ending! So, please enter your preference as a comment, and if you're fine with either one, you can say that too!

I'll wait to see what you guys say, and write the next chapter accordingly. 

Have a great day :D


End file.
